King Tut and London

FLYING Staff

Monday, March 30, 2009 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A check airman was unexpectedly reassigned to a "special assignment" piloting a flight to transport the $4 billion King Tut exhibition from London Heathrow to DFW.
Despite anticipating heightened security and complex procedures for such a high-value and historical cargo, the flights to and from London were surprisingly routine and uneventful.
The author later discovered that the "special assignment" involved transporting the valuable exhibition, not the actual King Tut mummy, making the experience less dramatic than initially envisioned.

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My monthly check is similar to the process of writing. Initially, the schedule resembles more of a rough draft than a publishable piece of literature. Editing is part of the process. Some months involve more editing than others. In that regard, when I retrieved a voice mail message to call our lead flight standards coordinator, I knew to prepare for a revision. But the revision was not what I had expected.

Mary explained that she had been given priority to remove me from my next trip that was to begin the following day. I was originally scheduled to fly with a new captain upgrade. Earlier in the day I had left an informational message with the new captain in anticipation of beginning his OE (operating experience). Apparently, that plan was no longer in the cards.